Increases in processing capability and decreases in the cost of personal computers has led to the proliferation of personal computers in all aspects of society. Personal computers are utilized in schools, homes and business. Furthermore, with the decreased cost of personal computers, it has become more feasible from a cost perspective to use computers for tasks and functions which were previously done without the use of computers.
With the proliferation of computers throughout numerous aspects of life, a tendency towards graphical user interfaces has evolved which makes the use of the computer more intuitive and therefore requires less expertise of the users. Examples of such graphical user interfaces include IBM.RTM. OS/2.RTM., Apple.RTM. System 7.RTM., and Microsoft.RTM. Windows.RTM.. These operating systems all rely on a "window-like" work space for applications, operating system information such as directory information, and program groupings.
As users become more comfortable with many benefits of a computer they are using additional functions and features of the computer. Since most applications are now associated with their own window or windows and there are more applications that people are using concurrently, the desktops are becoming extremely cluttered. When the application tool bars (or appbars) and the windows they are docked to (i.e. attached along as a common edge) are also taken into account, the confusion of the desktop becomes even more apparent. This is very obvious in a mobile environment where a typical user may have a host emulator session, an e-mail application, multiple browser sessions, an application such as a word processor and still needs to monitor his signal strength and battery strength. In an effort to organize their desktops, many people are moving parts of windows off to the sides so that much of these windows is outside of the view of the user. This allows the user to be aware of the window and the application that is running in it without the application consuming a considerable amount of screen space, but this methodology also causes a problem in that important information may be scrolled or positioned outside of the user's view. Many users also choose to move their appbars out of view by putting them into a mode called hide mode. This causes the appbar to be readily accessible by indicating or activating it using the cursor, which makes it unhidden (i.e., fully visible), but only displays an edge of the appbar, referred to hereinafter as a `visible strip`. The preferred embodiment implements this visible strip as a two-pixel strip although any indication of or subset of the appbar could be used. A mode called auto-hide also allows the appbar to automatically enlarge itself when the cursor is positioned over the visible strip.
The problem of appbar or status bar hiding becomes more intense as appbars, docked to applications, get moved off the edge of the screen and out of the view of the user.